Driver in teen fatality had license for one day

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Sadly, more Northwest teens have died after dangerous “hill hopping.” Two University High School girls died last month in Spokane Valley when a 16-year-old boy drove at freeway speeds through a residential area, intending to catch air on a hill. He lost control of his vehicle and struck a tree. The driver had been licensed for one day. The 15- and 16-year-old female passengers who died should not have even been in the vehicle. Washington’s intermediate-license law prohibits new teen drivers from carrying minors and non-family passengers for the first six months. Although the driver survived, he now could face vehicular homicide charges. Read the Spokesman-Review article and watch a KHQ-TV news story. On June 18 we posted a similar story about a Jefferson, Ore., crash that took the life of a 19-year-old male. Hill-hoppers accelerate their cars until they lift off the pavement at the crest of sharp hills. Doing so requires high speed because they’re literally defying gravity. Unless you steer the car perfectly, it likely will swerve when it lands as the shocks and springs compress, then expand, scrambling the car’s center of gravity.